Some feature ideas i am running on my projects

[frknakk]

Hi! Here are some features that i already implemented in my projects. If there is interest in them, i'm happy to implement them properly and create pull requests. Feedback please @yajra

1. Return selected columns

Problem: I want to process more columns than i want to display in the frontend. For example we have a Product model that has internal attributes like margin/fees, which are required for calculating the price. In this case i have to load the whole model (no select() restriction), but i don't want the internal attributes to be visible in the ajax request. The problem get's worse when loading nested relations, which are all included in the response.

Solution: Function to select which columns of the eloquent model should be included in the ajax response. Columns that were added via addColumn() are automatically included. In the following example, the whole Product model is available in the addColumns function, but only the id,name,description,price columns are returned in the ajax response.

public function dataTable(QueryBuilder $query): EloquentDataTable
{
	return datatables()
		->eloquent($query)
		->addColumn('price', function (Product $product) {
			return $product->price + $product->margin + $product->fees;
		})
		->returnColumns([
			'id',
			'name',
			'description',
                        // price is automatically included
		])
		->setRowId('id');
}
public function query(Product $model): QueryBuilder
{
	return $model->newQuery();
}

2. Custom Exception

Problem: I want to display custom errors (general as well as related to a field) in the updating or updated functions.

Solution: A CustomException class, which i can throw with the error message in the parameters. The frontend then shows the error message in production, bypassing the generic "Server Error" message.

public function creating(Model $model, $data)
{
	if ((new Carbon($data['start_date']))->floatDiffInYears(new Carbon($data['end_date'])) > 1)
	{
		// Specific error message (shown under the corresponding field)
		throw new CustomException([
			[
				'name' => 'end_date',
				'status' => 'The date range must not exceed 1 year',
			]
		]);
	}
}

public function deleting(Model $model, $data) {
	if (!Auth::user()->hasRole('admin')) {
		// Generic error message (shown in the footer)
		throw new CustomException([], 'You are not permitted to delete this row!');
	}
}

3. Action Column

Problem: I am adding action buttons in a last column "Actions" like Open Details, Edit, Remove, etc. For 2-3 buttons you can just add them via render method in raw html, but if you have many buttons it gets messy fast. Especially if you also have permissions for each button.

Solution: A easy to use actions column, in which you can add buttons with serverside/clientside checks for each button. The buttons get formatted pretty with a css grid, uniform spacing between them, responsiveness, auto-width, etc.
This solution requires css code

public function getColumns(): array
{
	return [
		Column::actions()

			// Block product (only shown if product is not blocked already)
			->button(
				'<button class="btn btn-danger btn-xs"><i class="fa-solid fa-fw fa-ban"></i></button>',
				"data.blocked == '0'", // Clientside (JS) Check
				null // Serverside Check
			)

			// Remove product (only shown if user has admin role)
			->button(
				'<button class="btn btn-danger btn-xs"><i class="fa-solid fa-fw fa-trash-alt"></i></button>",
				null, // Clientside (JS) Check
				Auth::user()->hasRole('admin') // Serverside Check
			)

			->renderAll(),
	];
}